Some poor soul recently received a $21k cell phone bill from Cingular.

Of course the first thing they did was to get on the phone and complain that there had to be some mistake.

Cingular responded that yes there was a mistake, the bill was now $31k and not $21k.

Most of the calls were made to Nicaraugua and many of the numbers were 000-000-0000 numbers.  The senior claimed that they had not made 165 calls per day to Nicaragua and didn't know anyone there either.

Cingular kicked it over to their super smart fraud team that came to the conclusion, that there was no fraud involved and that the calls were legit!

So of course then the Senior went to that great source of customer service and support, the local news.

The local news picked up the story and the bad press added up to more than $31k so Cingular forgave the bill and the Senior is looking for a new wireless carrier.

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Now I may complain about having to put diapers on my Beagle, but that is nothing compared to having to put diapers on a fish.  Fortunately, fish spawn and don't exactly go into heat like dogs do, so I won't have to worry about that scenario anytime soon.  I do worry about is how to find the fish.

I am just not any good at it any more.  When I was a kid I had kind of a sense for where they were, but as an adult I don't spend as much time on the water and just don't have the feel for it anymore.

Fortunately, our sponsor at NortheastMarineElectronics has just provided a new press release covering all of the great electronics that are available for water enthusiasts.  They have high tech GPS chart plotters and Garmin Marine electronics, depth finders, even Fishfinders!  So I don't need to keep my extra sensory fish perception in high gear, I just need to troll around and keep an eye on the fishfinder.

Maybe a little more fishing will give me time to recuperate mentally from having to change my dog's diapers.

Well, my dog is finally out of diapers and it really didn't happen soon enough.  There's nothing more irritating than changing a dog's diaper.

They are worse than kids, squirming all over the place, biting you, growling and trying to run away.  They get angry when you try and force their tail through the hole in the diaper, and once you have the silly thing on, what do they do???

They chew it right off and make an even bigger mess on the floor than the one you were trying to prevent in the first place!

A year ago last Thanksgiving, I hit the grocery store after the holiday and picked up a bunch of food that was for sale. I bought a turkey, a bunch of cans of pumpkin pie filling, condensed milk and frozen pie shells.

I was thinking that the pumpkin pie during the holiday tasted so good, why not have it more often?

So I stocked up on the stuff.  We ate the turkey after Christmas (we lost out on the Christmas left over lottery that year). 

I never did get around to making those pumpkin pies until last night.  These were actually the first pumpkin pies I had ever made and they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Considering I had only three eggs instead of the required 4 and the pie crust was over a year old (frozen).

One of best times to visit North Carolina is rapidly approaching.  Spring time in North Carolina comes in March, sometimes the beginning, sometimes the middle and sometimes the end. 

Its that time of the year when the trees start to bloom, the mountains start to wake up and the lakes (some of which are heated - literally) start to get warm enough to swim or go skiing.

I can't wait for spring to get here so I can spend some time in the mountains and go swimming and fishing on the lake in Gastonia. Now is a very good time to plan a spring break and find a place to stay with our sponsor north carolina vacation rentals. They can help you find a great vacation bread and breakfast or even find a vacation home.

I have been spending the better part of the day assessing my writing capabilities and prioritizing my writing strategy from a business perspective.

I spent the day timing my typing speed and composing speed.

Then timing my production capability and average earnings potential.

Reviewing my error rates (which was painful but necessary and just so happened to be a bad day for errors too!)

I tested myself in different settings and then performed the analysis.

All in all the conclusions were somewhat obvious and somewhat surprising.  I found that I will need to dedicate entire days (or at least 8 hour blocks to certain topics to write in advance the content, articles and stories to cover certain blogs for up to 4-5 weeks before hand.  Some of the blogs that I write for I get paid per article, and I need to cover these first.

Then I need to focus on splitting up smaller 1-2 hour blocks of time throughout the day and night to cover my own blogs with the sporadic articles that come up as news happens and paid opportunities present themselves.

In between those 1-2 hour blocks I need to rotate between 1-2 hour blocks of

• Design Time
• Education and Training
• Exercise
• Relaxation

The first two items above don't pay the bills but they make greater things possible.  They are my investment in the future.

The last two things help me focus my mind and keep me sane and healthy!

Now my next step is to design the actual schedule with the goals above presented in a useful way that I can track easily and rapidly.

A Word for our Sponsor

The answer to that question is Simmons Jannace and Stagg and now they are one of our sponsors again.  They represent all sizes of companies including fortune 500 companies.  simmons jannace & stagg provide a full service law firm that has grown significantly in size and capability over the last 10 years.

Their latest press release lists many of their clients and customers including major companies like Kmart and Bank of America and Home Depot and more.  Even though they have grown they still take on new and smaller companies working to establish and build relationships for the long haul.  They work to insure that their teams of lawyers do not fall slave to convention and push them to work out of the box and think creatively to solve problems with a minimal amount of conflict.

Its a nice Saturday afternoon and I am sitting on the deck writing and absorbing a little bit of sunlight as it filters through a slightly patchy sky.

My dogs are hanging out on the deck with me, the gate at the top of the stairs is closed and my daughter and her two friends (all average age of about 4.8) just joined me as well.

Its a bit chilly out here,probably about 64 or so and I am wearing a sweater.  When I first came out, it was brighter and warmer, but as soon as I sat down the sun went into the clouds and a cool breeze picked up. 

If you have ever had trouble finding that movie on the web, you can't quite remember the name but something just escapes your memory . . .

Maybe you need an online Video Detective.  Our new sponsor VideoDetective.com provides information, trailers, mash ups, directors commentary and more for over 20,000 movies. Plus they have an excellent search tool to search the rest of the internet for any DVDs movies or TV shows that aren't in their own databases. Visit the new VideoDetective, where movies live on the web. You will find a great site with lots of useful information and tools.

A 23 foot long python almost as long as a tennis court and as big as a tree trunk apparently doesn't like dogs.  The python ate 11 hounds that were guarding an orchard in Kuala Lumpur.

Some villagers caught the hounding pooch hater and tied the snake to a tree, which begs the question, how in the world do you tie a snake to anything????

Apparently the villagers didn't hurt the snake and eventually gave it to wild life officials that have a sister agency that is in need of a big snake to euthenize the plague of stray dogs in other parts of the country.

OK, I made that last part up, but you have to admit that it might be useful if this snake were allowed to exercise its talents . . .

OK, so Christmas is past, and if you didn't do it the day after Christmas, odds are you have something that needs to be returned to the store for a swap or for a refund.

Now you can start to envision the things that your really wanted for Christmas and possibly your mind has even erased those things that you thought would be cool last fall, but you didn't get them and now don't even remember what they were.

If you spend time in the outdoors, like to hunt or fish, then odds are good that you will be interested in some of the great deals at our sponsor OpticsPlanet.com.

They offer great deals on night vision goggles, sun glasses, and scopes like their Nikon rifle scopes. They specialize in optics providing some of the best brand name products so that you can find the exact thing you are looking for.

Don't settle for some off brand item in a broken package taped and stapled back together so that it could be restocked last night at Wal-Mart.  You don't want the gift that wasn't right for someone else at Christmas.

Get the right thing and get the best quality at OpticsPlanet.

My family and I are hoping to move later this summer and this time we are trying to plan our move the right way.  We want to get organized, sell or donate anything we do not need and do a clean sweep on our way to our new digs.

We have moved many times over the years and we have a legacy of bathroom supplies that grows but does not exhaust itself.  We always seem to accumulate more bathroom stuff

• cleaners
• medicines
• mouthwash
• and those miscellaneous things you only need once, buy and never use up

There's lots more stuff but the list is too long to even contemplate, but let me give you an example with the mouthwash.  I tend to buy the big value packs of mouthwash from Sam's or Costco.  Plus, we have three bathrooms and they tend to get stocked complete just in case we happen to be there.  The thing is every time we move, we tape the caps on the extra bottles of mouthwash, box them up with other miscellaneous items and ship them to the new location.

But we get to the new location before the boxes and buy more mouthwash.  The boxes come and we never seem to get around to depleting the boxed bathroom stuff.

So now over the years we have collected about 7 bottles of mouthwash, some of which is 10 years old.  The stuff can't be good anymore, but we just haven't gotten around to sorting through what is useful and what isn't.  Like I had athlete's foot about 9 years ago.  Bought some medicine for it, the athletes foot went away and now I still have a left over tube of gunk.  I save it for the day when I might get athlete's foot again, but that day hasn't come.

I have a sneaky suspicion that I will get athlete's foot the day after I throw the tube of gunk out.

I'm pretty sure that's how it happened 9 year ago too .. . .

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After coming back from a trip at the beginning of the year and most recently Illinois for personal reason.  I am somewhat behind in my some of my work.  Its illustrative to me that now is the time to insure that I have my priorities straight.  You can only do this if you have good information about your business activities.  You have to know where your costs are going, where your revenue is coming from and put the two together to determine your profits.

Its the same for any business large or small.  You have to monitor your costs, evaluate them, make plans for improvement, execute the improvements and repeat. 

Our sponsor, Acorn System provides companies software tools they need to measure and track the activity that is taking place.  They offer activity based cost software solutions enabling companies to answer the question, "What is going on?"

If your company needs to understand its priorities and find out what is going on, then starting with your costs is likely to be a rewarding place to begin.

So yesterday I had hoped to write 100 articles in one day to overcome writers block.

I didn't even come close!

I have done it in the past, but just couldn't get it done last night.  The good news is that I am definitely over my writers block and kind of out of my creativity funk too, but I sure didn't come close to my goal, which was a little disappointing.

My hands are happy though!  They got a good nights rest and were raring to go today.

Seriously, some good things happened that prevented me from writing more.  I had several good meetings yesterday full of great new opportunities and so that more than compensated for the lack of writing.

I did write quite a few articles, somewhere around 20-40, but I haven't taken the time to count.

I have also established a new blog, but it will be completely anonymous, so I am not disclosing a link.  Kind of runs contrary to normal blogging goals, but there is a good reason.  It is being done for the public good, its not porn or something goofy like that.  :)

Just how good of a motivational speaker would you have to be to convince a town to rename itself after your internet company?

You'd have to be prety fantastic. Don't get me wrong you won't see Atlanta renaming itself to There's Something About Harry.com anytime soon, but Mark Hughes was able to convince Halway, Oregon to change its name to Half.com. He later went onto work as a successful VP of Ebay and now he is touring as Buzzmarketing, marketing speaker.

He has a book out too, and if even a fraction of his capabilities can be learned, then that would be a pretty useful book to read or speaking event to attend. Probably is more interesting and informative than an entire semester of lectures at college on marketing too! So check out Mark Hughes, we like him so much we have picked him up as a new sponsor!

I came across this article the other day titled "Paleozoic Shark Attacks Awashima".

The headline is a farce, but it was a good way to capture attention for a blog.  The cool part is the pictures of this shark.  I had actually seen a picture on CNN right before I saw this blog.

But check out the pictures of this shark that is rarely photographed as it swims 2000 feet below the ocean.

This video on YouTube of the shark is pretty awesome too.  It makes you wonder just how popular National Geographic would have been if YouTube had been in existence 50 years ago.

There's Something About Harry's upcoming blog anniversary.  I have experienced many wedding anniversaries.  I have been married for thirteen years now, but I am coming up on my first series of blog anniversaries.

I know what to do for a wedding anniversary.  That's simple I just go online to my  preferred sponsor, flowershop.com and I send my wife some anniversary flowers.  Flowershop.com provides great flowers and they can be delivered straight from your local florist shop or from a shop near to the recipient per their latest release.

I now need to figure out if I should send myself flowers for my blog anniversary.  It seems like the nice thing to do.  Plus, I may have to worry about getting mad at myself if I don't receive flowers from myself???

I guess the easy solution to that problem is to just send the anniversary flowers and stop the worrying!

Binge drinkers sometime prepare for the likely or the inevitable sickness that comes from drinking too much alcohol.  I have a friend that used to drink peppermint schnapps all the time when he was a teenager (yes underage drinking is bad).

His philosophy had multiple parts:

1. If he were to kiss or make out with a girl, his breath would smell like peppermint,
2. If he got pulled over by the police, his breath would smell like peppermint.
3. If he got sick and blew chow all over the place, it would taste pepperminty coming up!

I was reminded of this philosophy earlier this week when the flu raged through the household.  I started worrying about the possibility of blowing chow and I found myself eating things that wouldn't be too awfully bad the second time around.

But that list is a little short, I couldn't think of very many things, but came up with a few, like eating the candy hot tamales, or drinking a sprite as opposed to diet coke.

I then became curious if other people ever engage in this activity too, whether they are fighting off the flu or alcoholism.

We have three dogs.  Cheddar, the dachshund retriever mutt belongs to my son,  Bleu the Beagle belongs to me, and Ruebenz the basset hound puppy belongs to my wife.

Bleu has been spending some time wearing a diaper and alternately hanging out in the dog cage.

Cheddar is the oldest and we have had her the longest.  She is fixed and doesn't need to wear a diaper nor go in a cage.

But for whatever crazy reason she has gotten a little jealous of the beagle and so whenever I leave the cage open, I find cheddar camping out in it laying on the Beagles blanket.

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Take note, there are only about 20 days left until Valentine's Day!  I have never been much of a flower giving type, but I do like to give something a little more useful and reusable like a Valentines Day Gifts that come in the form of Gift Baskets.

That's where our sponsor Gourmet Gift Baskets.com comes in to provide a better solution.  Their latest release details their ability to provide many different types of useful gourmet gift baskets on Valentines Day.  Flowers will brighten things up in your house or office for a few days, but a gift basket and its goodies can last a lot longer or even be saved many times until you are ready to use those goodies inside!

I was watching or channel flipping through CNN this evening, and I caught one of those human interest stories. 

This story was about a Doctor (MD variety) that was attempting to modify his own bad behavior.  He drinks a shot of hot sauce (the painful burning type) to punish himself before he eats.  He was over weight and now he's some kind of skinny running stud.

Regardless there actually seems to be the hint of science leaking into this concept, like something that you would watch on House. The pain apparently triggers a response in the brain that is similar to the pain associated with arthritis or something.

Long story short, this diet actually works.  It does change your behavior through negative conditioning.  It can help turn your brain around and start associating eating food that is bad for you with an non-pleasurable activity.  Its something that sounds like its out of a Clock Work Orange, but does make practical sense if you are that much of a masochist I guess, this might be the diet for you!

I'd like to know what you think about your credit cards these days?

I personally am of the impression that credit card companies are becoming much rougher with their customers in general and that even the savvy credit card consumers are having a difficult time keeping pace with the innovation in the credit card industry.

I saw a story on CNN tonight about a college student about 22 years old that had bad credit and so she was not able to get a credit card.  But a savvy thief was able to steal one of her credit card offers and get a credit card in her name from Bank of America with an annual APR of 65%! 

That seems to indicate to me that Bank of America is preying upon those people that can not afford credit cards and are likely to be the most financially vulnerable.  (Bank of America lost $2300 to the identity theft thief, but if they have a few other customers paying cards at 65% interest they will rapidly make their money back and a whole lot more).

People need to utilize more and more resources to keep up with the changes in the industry and the opportunities that are there.  Our sponsor CreditCards-gb.co.uk provides credit card news helping people stay ahead of the credit card racket.  They also have information that can help people find 0% balance transfers options to run away from credit cards that have interest rates that have gotten out of control, but here is a tip.

If you transfer a balance from a credit card to a new card, do not close the account and do not use the card.  Closing the account harms your credit score.  Using the older card racks up your credit card debt.  Lock that card in a vault or safe somewhere and ignore it but leave the credit line open to help your credit score remain strong so that you can continue to get the best interest deals available!

OK, this is a little on the silly side and probably a little less mature than you might be expecting, but as I type this its going on three am in the morning and its almost my bed time.

That means that I need to put the beagle in her cage for the night.

You see the beagle is in heat and she's a stray and we haven't gotten her fixed yet as she is almost our dog, but not quite yet.

We don't keep dogs outside and so we have the practical problem of dealing with the beagles  . . . . sanitary issues right now.  I'm sure you've seen the commercials on TV for the human condition, but no one talks about the canine condition and their sanitary concerns.

Now the canines themselves don't really mind, after all they would just as soon drink from a toilet or roll in a pile of crap in the grass for a good time.  But we silly humans that think we are taking care of our fellow animals, we call pets need to keep our homes clean for many very good reasons.

So we have cut a hole in a diaper and now during the day, I find myself chasing the beagle around trying to put the damn thing back on her as she constantly finds ways to take the diaper off.

 Worse yet if she has a  . . . . sanitary accident, then I find myself following the beagle around with a Swiffer.  Of course, she's a bit of a paranoid beagle (she's a stray and all and they have street smarts so they are naturally more skittish).  When she sees me following after her with the swiffer cleaning things up, she knows that a new diaper is soon to follow and equates the swiffer with a diaper.  She doesn't like the diaper and so the swiffer by extension has become a threat, a threatening swiffer that seems to chase her all over the house.

I guess people are lucky that they don't have sanitary issues like this, swiffer's chasing them and things, let alone a dog looking out for us, regularly putting a new diaper on us. 

Wow, I really can't wait until this beagle is out of heat so that we can get her fixed!

So if money weren't an option and you could afford to take some time off for recovery, and if you needed it would you get a tummy tuck?

As I think about it, I am recently reminded that a tummy tuck could take off some weight and that has to be good for your body and your system, heart too for that matter.  Surgery is a major trauma for the body, but wouldn't the life you give back to your heart help out?

America is over weight and that is supposed to be so expensive for us.  Maybe we should take rapid action.

All of these thoughts were recently inspired as a read a release from Dr. Lloyd Krieger one of our new sponsors.  He recently opened a new boutique located in the middle of Rodeo Drive.  His boutique caters to people looking for cosmetic surgery solutions even if that includes a los angeles tummy tuck.  He provides liposuction, tummy tucks, facial rejuvenation and the cosmetic surgery staple of breast augmentations and surgical breast implants. 

So what do you think, would you take some pounds and inches off to extend your years?

Over the holidays I met up with one of my cousins that I haven't seen in close to ten years.  He's actually my father's cousin so that makes him my second cousin. 

We got to talking and he too has been writing as a hobby for quite some time.  We were comparing notes and I think we both realized that we were marching to a similar drum beat.

Much of his writing has focused on poetry and most of mine has focused on blog writing, especially comedy, tech writing and editorials.  It seems though that we will be able to probably help each other along.  I have learned a great deal about how to earn money from your creative writing and he has developed several writing clubs to work locally with writers to help and encourage each other along.

it seems a little ironic that after so much time, we would connect up with similar interests, but I guess it goes to show that we each do have a purpose in life and when those purposes interconnect with those around us, its important to notice and act on it, which is what we are doing.

Several of the comments that he made in our discussion covered some themes that seem to be constantly recurring in my life lately.  There are a lot of people out there that I keep running into that have a story and a good one at that to tell.  It amazes me how easy it is to communicate these days, and I think the internet is playing a vital role in spreading a great deal of ideas and knowledge rapidly.

We often think of the formal knowledge like corporate documents, and training programs, even the development of Wikipedia topics, but what about all those communal family stories or word of mouth events that get handed down.  We have the means to keep those in circulation and spread them further than ever before.  Does this mean that as a society, more people will be able to learn the lessons of these stories faster? 

Regardless, I think we are still very much on the cusp of just how much we can learn from each other and in many more ways than we ever imagined.

Hopefully, you will never need to be medivaced to a hospital, but if the time ever comes, you need to be able to find a good service.  Finding a service that works internationally around the globe is even more difficult.  Whether you are vacationing and become very sick, or working as an expatriate abroad or just need to be transported to a different country for the right medical care, our new sponsor AeroCare provides air evac services that can get you or your loved one safely to your destination.

Their planes helicopters and vehicles are specially equipped for your health and safety and are staffed by trained professionals.  They have flight nurses and flight medics available and specialists available for critically ill patients.  They also provide air and ground organ procurement and recipient transportation services.

They are licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health and can bill your insurance company direct if the service is pre-approved.  They can even work with you to help find the right services or plan to suit your needs.  They can provide quotes online ASAP, or by phone or even email if you utilize their online quote system, or call them direct through their 24 hour Air Ambulance Flight Coordination Center. 

Today and Tonight I am doing a blog marathon.  I have been out of town and traveling too much lately and riding on emotional roller coasters and just recently suffering from a bit of writers block.  So today, I am forcing myself to burn through that writers blog and get the cob webs out of my head!

I am going to try and write 80 - 100 articles today!  Just to see if I can do it.

We'll see . . . .

A word for our sponsor

The weather hasn't been super cold this week in Georgia, but I am definitely missing those Caribbean breezes. I need some time and some money and then I can take a look at Vacations.net.

They offer all inclusive caribbean trips, cruises and vacations. All the meals, drinks and expenses are covered in the packages at their resorts and cruises so that you can pay one price and then just focus on enjoying yourself. They also have some great promotional offers and good deals in general according to their latest release.

With the launch of their new website, they are even offering discounts of up to fifty percent off!

So I took one of these stupid quizes that are supposed to give you insight into yourself and found half the answers completely irrelevant but gave it my best shot and ended up with this crap.  :)

I think the worst question response was something like

Driving is:

1. the greatest freedom
2. the funner the faster you go
3. follow the rules or get off the road
4. a way to get somewhere effiiciently

The answer should have been, one huge pain in the ass if you live in a metro area of the US.  There's nothing free or fun about driving 20 miles per hour in gridlock traffic and that sure isn't effiicient either, and rules who the hell follows rules in bumper to bumper???

As my title implies, I always keep my eye out for something funny.

So today I am taking on a new sponsor, OddBallAuctions!

They go out and find goofy things that are up for auction on Ebay and push them out to their site.

The picture above is an example of what their feed can look like.  They also offer up an affiliate program for anyone else that wants to run their feed and use their free money making content.  I'll keep you posted if I actually earn anything helping them out, but as long as they keep the funny coming, I'm happy.

So I am even going to add them into my sidebar to show their most recent goofy things up for  auction, that's just my kind of thing!

As we were leaving my parents home last week, I was struck by some writing I found on the ground.

More specifically, it was writing in the snow.  My son had written his name in the snow.  I had my camera and snapped a picture. 

My mother, my son's grandmother, saw the writing and said, "Oooh I need to get a picture of that."

To which I replied, "I already got it.  I'll send you a copy"

So that is really the entire purpose of this short little story.  I guess I was just happy that my son did not write his name on Grandma's front yard in a Yellow Font!

I have been following the Rags to Silk story of Peter Belisi for quite a while now.  Belisi Designs is one of our preferred sponsors and you can learn more about Belisi - How it Started at their website or blog. Personally, I think its a great story and suspect this is just the first of many great steps to come.

Belisi got started working as a bar tender to the old money types in Palm Beach, Florida.  I'm not talking about old computer or internet money, think robber barons and Rockefellers, rail roads, steel and oil.

Peter tended bar and any good bar tender needs to have a bit of a gimmick, something to make them stand out and appear unique, but also give them a conversational item to connect with their customers.  

So how do you connect with old money, when you are a bar tender in Palm Beach?  Its not easy.

But Peter Belisi was creative and he had a panache of taste for ties.  He had a tie collection and developed a reputation for never wearing the same tie twice.  Now old money types are quick to notice quality and tasteful clothing, anything less sticks out like a plastic Halloween costume in a Monday morning board room meeting.

Peter collected great ties.  He also started designing them and many other clothing accessories from scarves to handbags and more.  He recognized that a great suit or dress or outfit just wouldn't have that  . . . . certain something unless it was garnished with the perfect accessory.

Now he has founded Belisi Designs and he is living the American dream.  He provides great designs and clothing accessories and I suspect that his journey will continue to encapsulate even more in the future.  After all if he was able to capitalize on all those conversations and lessons as a bar tender, just think what he'll be able to accomplish and learn from running his own clothing and design empire!

Whenever I go on a road trip, I use cruise control a lot more than I do when I am tooling around the city.

I always am extra careful not to bump the buttons, because I have this light but peculiar fear that if I fail to turn off the cruise control, and I bump the resume button while I am stopped that the van will accelerate like someone has just stomped on the gas pedal and my van will take off from 0 to 70 and push me through a house or something.

This has never happened and leaving my foot on the break is supposed to cancel out that type of control switch, but never the less its one of those things that feeds my imagination I guess for no good reason.

I have been tracking gold markets lately for personal reasons.  While doing this I came upon a press release from MDC (Monex Deposit Company) they specialize in hard assets from selling, buying, storage and transfers and more.

Their release on gold bullion indicates that gold is a historically safe investment and they provide the services and rates to help people looking to invest in this type of commodity.  As I have seen Gold has come off its all time highs of last spring and dropped, but not quite as fast as oil prices have dropped, so it would seem that there is some correlation in the rates between the two, meaning that gold doesn't seem to be floating above oil right now.

Last week I was driving from Charlotte, NC to Peoria, IL and I stopped at Arby's twice along the way.

The first Arby's I stopped at was somewhere in the middle of South Carolina and we got our food and ate just before about 300 kids from a church bus swarmed the place.  We got our food inside but to go.  We were given empty cups and filled our own drinks.

The next Arby's was in Lebanon Tennessee (number 05891).  I was in a hurry, the family was waiting and we got the food to go.  I ordered drinks and just casually mentioned that I wanted a small coke and a medium coke, intending to actually fill up the empty cups that I would receive with sweet tea and diet coke.

Of course, instead of getting empty cups, I got cups filled with coke.  [Groan]

So I went back to the counter and explained I had expected to be able to fill my own and could I exchange the drinks.

The guy behind the counter seemed like he had had a rough night, but was gracious and gave us new drinks in the form of sweet tea and diet coke.

I noticed while I was waiting that there was some kind of bell hanging by the door.  It said if you have received great service here, please ring the bell.

So as we left, I had my four year old daughter ring the bell.  She did it kind of quietly, so I rang it again much more loudly.

The guy behind the counter gave me a weird look, like I was from Pluto or something, but at the same time, seemed to appreciate the gesture.

I have two defining concert events in my lfie.  I once took a trip to Chicago to see the Ramones and Debbie Harry in concert at the World Theatre complex.

My best friend and I had been invited by two girls that had tickets and we had the car.  We went to Chicago first, and they kind of drove us nuts on the trip, even though we were all good friends.

We were under the impression from the girls that the Ramones were headlining, but for whatever stupid reason, The Ramones opened and we ended up missing the Ramones while we waited in a 2 hour line to park.

The Debbie Harry Concert was great and concluded with Debbie Harry ripping off her shirt.

That was a lot of fun but about two or three years later, I went to the first Lollapalooza in San Francisco.  I went to see Nine Inch Nails, which was some small act at the time, just about a year after Pretty Hate Machine had come out and a few months after the Sin single had come out.

The show included the But Hole surfers, Living Color, Suzie and the Banshees and Janes Addiction.

At the time I didn't know the But Hole Surfers nor Janes Addiction even though I'd heard of them.

I had driven my motorcycle down to the concert with a girlfriend on the back.  We met up with some friends and made some new friends at the concert.  It was an all day thing and the combination setting of San Francisco, Lollapalooza the original, and some strange girl that gave me a drink that was supposed to be laced with something to make the experience very  . . . . trippy, but instead turned out to be just beer in a squirt gun.  (You just can't trust a girl with a squirt gun anymore.)

All the bands were excellent, and Janes Addiction capped off the show, which was completely amazing, I've been a huge fan since.  As I was driving back to Monterey (home at the time) and riding my bike through the mountains with "Coming Down the Mountain" running through my head, and my girl friend on the back of my motorcycle, we hit a lot of fog and the roads got very slippery.

We lost traction and the bike fish tailed for about a quarter mile or so, which scared the crap out of me and woke up my girl friend, who had apparently fallen asleep.

It was one of those charmed experiences where you come close to death, but escape unharmed and get the feeling that a guardian angel must have been on your side.

The whole event capped off the night and left me with an experience that I won't forget.

So now I'm submitting this experience in the form of a video as for a sponsored post and submission into a contest for PayPerPost Concert.

I have been out of town for the last week following the passing of my grandfather, Harold Bumeter for whom I am named. 

He lived a great life and accomplished many things, but it was a very emotional week as the family came together to organize the funeral and help my grandmother get re-organized herself.

I'll talk more about this in the future, but wanted to let everyone know that I am back.

I feel like my online work year has gotten off to a slightly delayed beginning, as I attended the CES show the second week of January, and then left town to be with my family.

I have a lot of pent up work to do and lots of great ideas that have been stewing up in relation to my writing and my other work.  As my grandfather has passed away, it feels like a certain part of my families history has come to a conclusion, but I can distinctly feel that a new chapter has begun as well.  So it is with somewhat mixed emotions that I say, that I am very eager to get going and start making an impact on the world again and helping people too!

Sponsored Article

With many follow up opportunities, Peter Belisi has become one of our preferred sponsors. Peter Belisi founded his fashion company with a tie collection that he accumulated over several years, while he worked his way up from bar tending in Palm Beach to running a fashion and design firm.

He built the Belisi Brand to merge the fashion, style, character and presence of Palm Beach living with that of Italian simplicity and beauty in design. Belisi learned very early on that completing a terrific look requires much more than putting a few components together off the rack. The devil is in the details and Belisi manages to work out the devil with great accessories including his ties. His unique styles definitely can work to compliment great clothing.

Last week I was traveling through Houston and I had several reminders of the times while I was delayed over in the Houston Airport.  I was layed over for about three and a half hours as I flew back from Las Vegas to Atlanta.  An automated message kept playing on some type of timed loop over the intercom.

The message reminded all that were present in a very friendly but slightly stern female voice, "We would like to remind you that any inappropriate comments or jokes may result in your arrest."

Now I never saw anyone arrested for making jokes about bombs or weapons or strange white powder masquerading as powdered sugar.  However, I did see two airport employees lose it.

One poor lady, rather short and kind of slumping from late middle age, came out a service door.  The service door led to one of the very lengthy terminals.

I was sitting on the floor across from the opening charging my cell phone in one of the very few active and available outlets.  (many outlets were available, but the airport turns off power to these outlets such that energy pirates like myself do not make the energy bill for the airlines too expensive.)

When I sat down initially there were two swinging doors in front of me.  About 5 minutes later a team of 3 TSA personnel showed up.  They set up a folding table outside the door.

The lady walked through it carrying a folding cooler for lunch things and they proceeded to detain and search her on the spot.  She complied with little fuss.  After it was over, she walked over by me, sat down in a chair and phoned her supervisor on her cell phone.

She began to break down in tears about the search, complaining that the TSA would no longer allow her to bring her lunch to work and that her medical condition (undescribed) forced her to bring a cooler with multiple types of soups.  The TSA supervisor thought she was lying and asked to speak to the supervisor on her cell phone to provide his version of events.  It was very strange and slightly surreal like something out of the movie Brazil.

I got a little uncomfortable and started to walk away just as a Mexican janitor came through the door with a garbage can on wheels.  They detained him and searched him and I could hear him asking as I walked away, "Am I being detained for arrest again?"

I left for my gate comfortable in the fact that the TSA had not been covering those doors most of the day, but had managed to find two worth while dangerous types coming through the previously unprotected door.  I'm very happy that my government is so efficient and on top of things.

Sponsored Article

In these thoroughly modern times, it seems that it is a completely practical step to take to setup an alarm system to monitor and help protect your home.

Not only is your home one of your most valuable assets, but it protects something that is even more valuable than any asset, you and your family.  Posting a Sentinel to guard you and yours is a very smart step and can give you much peace in the knowledge that you have the best that money can buy to protect you from fire, theft, smoke and even medical emergencies.

Residential Alarm Systems from Sentinel can provide you with full service home security and monitoring protection with help just a button or alarm signal away.

I was watching the news last night and heard that James Brown has still not been laid to rest.  They are holding his body inside his mansion in South Carolina.  Apparently his children, wife and ex wife and lawyers are still fighting over the estate and over his body.

So poor James Brown is left to his mansion instead of being allowed to rest in peace.  They are still working the poor guy even after he is dead and that will yield him the title as the hardest working Undead Man in Showbiz!

Sponsored Article

Here is a quick note from a terrific new sponsor that specializes in recruiting Civil Engineers for firms around the country.

Candidates applying for positions in civil engineering can find an excellent partner and solution when they consider CSI. CSI is a primary and possibly the only recruiting firm specializing in the recruitment of positions for placement at Civil Engineering Firms. CSI has recently provided a release that details their approach and qualifications.

CSI is structured with professional recruiters that focus entirely on civil engineering candidates and jobs. They have accumulated 30 plus years of combined experience in Civil Engineering Recruitment. CSI's President has twenty years of Civil Engineering recruiting experience himself. Similarly, CSI's Sales Director has 10 years of sales experience. With a support staff of twelve other recruiting professionals they have the experience, focus and bandwidth to achieve results for recruits and employers.

CSI doesn't recycle old resumes or offers. They prefer to focus on fresh and timely leads by developing relationships with companies and the industry. This allows them to deliver solid candidates into solid careers building an excellent foundation for repeat business in the future with firms and companies seeking additional candidates later on down the road.

OK, this is one of those deals where the picture says everything.

In case you actually need a story to go along with the picture, here is what the AP reported on this extremely rotund feline

Tiffany Noreuil, an animal care technician at the Oregon Humane Society, holds temporarily-named feline Goliath, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, in Portland, Ore. Goliath, a 20-pound stray whose girth got him stuck in a pet door while trying to plunder some dog food, is back with his owner. His name isn't really Goliath, but it's close. It's Hercules, says owner Geoff Ernest, who was reunited with his tubby tabby Thursday at the society. Gresham, Ore., resident Jadwiga Drozdek found the feline stuck in the dog door of her home a few days ago, helped free him and gave him a plate of food on her patio. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Benjamin Brink)

 

Technorati tags: fat cat, cats that can't make it through the door

Harry would like to share some information about a fantastic new sponsor, Wirefly.com.

Wirefly.com is sponsoring a sale on Verizon cell phone that ends this Friday on many different Cell Phones including the Motorola Razr and the LG Chocolate.

Pink or black Razr's are available from Wirefly with Verizon carrier plans for $0.00 for people that establish a brand new Verizon Wireless account.  New account holders can even get a Motorola v325i for free plus a $50 cash back rebate.

 The new Motorola Krzr phone (pronounced Crazer, like crazier or Frazier) is also available for free after the rebate is redeemed.  The Krzr can be seen in the image on the right.

If you have a taste for chocolate, the new LG Chocolate  phone is also free through Wirefly after rebates.

Wirefly has many other great deals as well with many different carriers that include US Cellular, Tmobile, Nextel,Sprint, Cingular (just renamed to AT&T, Amp'd and Alltel Wireless.  If you are looking for great deals on prepaid carriers, you can also check out Tmobile to go, the Go Phone plans from Cingular, Virgin Mobile and Liberty Wireless.

Plus, Wirefly has all the accessories you can dream of at their site.  All in all they have a comprehensive selection and great buys on phones for customers looking to dump that old phone and old plan and move on to something newer, sexier and save a bundle at the same time.

I live in Gwinnett County Georgia and its one of the fastest growing countries in the United States.  This means that real estate here can and usually does some strange things.  People that have owned a few acres of land for twenty or forty or sixty years often find themselves looking at offers to sell to a real estate developer for anywhere from a half million to several million dollars.

I have recently watched a development go up on either side of a small little lot that has a mobile home sitting on it.  This particular home sponsors a year round garage sale most of the time with several dozen tables permanently setup in the yard.  On these tables are collections of clothes and other items gained from years combing garage sales, thrift shops and flea markets to be remarketed in this garage sale.

Anyway the mobile home sits on at least 4 acres of land going on 10 maybe and that's worth about $1 million dollars given its location.  Its even an easy clean up.  All the real estate developers have to do is tow away the mobile home, maybe giving it away to someone that will sell it for scrap or convert it or something, then do a light bull doze over the very few scrubby trees on the lot and bam instant made for development lot, devoid of any character or feeling or vegetation.

Of course the owners must be holding out for that developer that will pay them $10 million and to help convince them, they have worked to point out that their mobile home comes equipped with an in-law suite.  So the next time you or someone you know is in the market for a million to ten million dollar mobile home that absolutely positively has to have an in-law suite, just drop me a line and I will personally act as your sales broker.  I'll even give you a $10k discount off of my 4% brokers commission if you mention this blog in your referral!

Sponsored Article

Candidates looking positions in civil engineering can find an excellent partner and solution when they consider CSI.  CSI is one of the only recruiting firms that specializes in recruiting positions for Civil Engineering Jobs.  CSI has recently provided a release that details their approach and qualifications.

They do not churn through old resumes or offers.  They prefer to focus on great and timely leads by developing relationships with companies and the industry.  They can then deliver solid candidates into solid careers building an excellent foundation for repeat business in the future with firms and companies seeking additional candidates later on down the road.

They are staffed by professional recruiters that solely focus on civil engineering candidates and jobs.  They have over 30 years of combined experience in Civil Engineering Recruitment.  CSI's President has twenty years of Civil Engineering recruiting experience and their Sales Director has 10 years.  With a support staff of twelve other professionals they have the experience, focus and bandwidth to achieve results for recruits and employers.

Anyone that has ever tried to play poker online, has probably experienced that fact that some of the best games require the user to download, install and run a program to bring the best poker graphics to your screen.

However, many poker sites don't provide Mac computer options at all and some don't provide a playing experience as good as that to be had by PC users.

MacPoker online has dedicated a site to providing great information on sites that cater to the poker needs of Macintosh poker players.  They provide reviews, site lists poker tips and more for Poker enthusiasts that prefer to play on a mac.

They cover all types of poker news and provide links to the downloads of mac versions of many different poker games.  In addition they offer up information that can help users learn to play poker better and keep up on recent news and events in the poker world.

I was flying back from Las Vegas a couple mornings ago.  I hadn't had any sleep in 24 hours and hadn't had much more than 8 hours sleep in the last 4 days.

I was checking in a bag at the airport, had just gotten the sticker strip with the bar code on it and was instructed to take my bag about 50 feet from the check in counter and give it to the TSA personnel by a big machine that was probably a big X-ray or something.

I wheeled my way over there with my bag that weighed 49 pounds (just under the minimum to check in for free) and handed it over to a guy behind a kind of security strip.  I had the slide out handle on my bag extended.  On my Samsung bag this handle locks in place and will not slide down by force unless you push a button built into the handle.

Worried about this fact for reasons that typically only come up when I'm dealing with my kids (I hope!)  I mentioned to the guy that he would have to push down the button to close the handle on the bag.

He quickly responded (in a fashion that indicated that he had not only had plenty of sleep, but lots of coffee too) "yeah I've never operated one of these before."   His grin and the comment bowled me over and I was instantly laughing with how stupid my comment must have been.

It immediately made me think that this would have made a great addition to that never ending them that Bill Engvall started called, "Here's Your Sign" where he offers up situations where stupid people should be forced to wear a sign that says, I'm stupid after stupid comments.

This was definitely my stupid moment that day, but possibly not my worst!

Few people will argue that southern California, Florida and Hawaii are some of the nicest places in the United States for bums to live as the weather is warm most of the year round.  With warm weather many of life's other necessities can be maintained a little easier.

This last week I travelled to Las Vegas where I found that there is something else available to bums that also helps them cover life's necessities even though it only keeps them warm temporarily.  You see in Las Vegas every street corner has one if not more newspaper stands containing a half dozen stands each.  These stands are not filled with such lofty papers as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal or even the LA Times.  It doesn't even usually have a Las Vegas newspaper.

Instead these stands hold stack after stack of advertising publications listing all of the potential adult entertainment and escort services a person might ever conceive of complete with graphic pictures.  Plus, on many of the busiest corners, especialy on the strip, bums and many Mexican immigrants (mostly men and a few teenage boys) pass out baseball card size pictures of exotic dancers and strippers. 

Many residents and even a few residents have learned to turn a blind eye to the pornography on every corner, but for bums they get something that few other bums around the country do and its free.

The bums of Las Vegas get all the free masturbatory material they could possibly ever wish for in ten life times.

The pornography literally litters the ground.  Bums could easily cover themselves up at night and sleep on piles of pornography.  Not too many bums anywhere else in the country can make that claim.

Now I did look long and hard for an area in Las Vegas that did not contain this material or these stands and I was actually able to get two pictures of two areas devoid of the ads, but its very likely that street sweepers had recently been through . . .

These are pictures of the Hilton and a Vegas Wedding Chapel.  Neither had visible displays of porn stands in front of them, but the stands were not far away, just a few more feet in the case of the chapel and less than a half block or right across the street in the case of the Hilton.

This makes Las Vegas the most jerk off friendly capital of the world for bums, and probably for just about anyone else that stops by or lives there too!

And a word for our sponsors . ..

What would the world be like if Ben and Jerry's hadn't sold ice cream, but instead had opted to sell flowers?

Beyond Blossoms provides fresh flowers imported from flower farms from all around the world, and they like to think of themselves as the Ben & Jerry's of flowers, offering great deals on the standards like roses and also providing flowers that are harder to find.

Beyond Blossoms founders Josh Grossman and Gina Maschek recently provided a this release on their flowers.  Their site offers a rewards program that allows buyers to earn points from buying flowers.  These points can be redeemed with free flower purchases from their website. 

We welcome Beyond Blossoms as one of our sponsors and encourage our readers to consider bookmarking their site in preparation for Valentines day or any occasion.

I went out with my wife and kids for dinner tonight to celebrate my wife's birthday.  We tried a new restaurant that we hadn't been to before called Johnny Carino's Italian.  Its supposed to be 'country Italian.'

The food was good enough, but I wouldn't call it great.  The service was excellent and we had a very friendly waiter that was on top of his game, until the kids ran out of milk.

We have little kids and running out of milk is sometimes a traumatic ordeal that can result in a piercing screams of terror followed by frustration and anger and disappointment.  Fortunately, tonight was a minor incident and my four year old daughter and sometimes candidate for the Exorcists Daughter was only mildly miffed.

The waiter went to get more milk, but came back dejectedly when he learned that the bartender was out on break somewhere (6:30pm on a Friday night????? strange time for a bar tender to take a break at a busy restaurant).  Anyway apparently all the milk is kept behind the bar.  Our 19 something waiter told us that he'd probably be fired if he tried to poor the milk himself because he would have to set foot behind the bar, an offense punishable by firing, prison, beheading and probably more if the judge is miffed too!

As I was exploring more, I found another online gaming site. This one is a little more serious than bingo, covering more traditional games at PartyCasino with bets starting at $1 minimum each for some games but there are some ten cent dime games as well.

You have to be over 18 to play and the site is governed by Gibraltar and is probably not the thing for US residents unless you are playing out of the country or something.

PartyCasino offers a whole slew of games.

They offer black jack, poker, you can even bet on horse races and play slots. So if you want to gamble a bit this weekend, here you go. Me I'm headed to Vegas on Sunday night so you can guess what I'll be up to next week!

Its funny, I lived in Illinois for a number of year, grew up there actually.  They have lots of bingo halls in Illinois.

When I moved to Florida, I half expected to see lots of bingo halls there as well, but it wasn't the case.

These days, I check out lots of online games and I just found a new site that I plan on checking out. 

Its PartyBingo.com they offer about a half dozen different games, mostly Bingo types of Games.  PartyBingo offers up 90 ball bingo, 75 ball bingo, Bingo Royale(without the new James Bond) Instant Bingo, plus Slots and Video Poker too.

Each PartyBingo card seems to average about 10 cents a card.

So if Bingo is your thing, or you are looking for a new online game site, this might be just the thing for you to play a little and chat a little with other players.

:)

This week, I have been exploring an entirely new medium (its been around for a while and written about for almost 20 years but its new to me.)   Its called SecondLife and its basically a virtual reality game world online. 

Its really a virtual overlay on top of the internet.  It makes for an infinitely more interesting user experience in many ways.  You literally are a person in this world and explore the net by walking, flying and teleporting.  Plus you can talk to other web surfers.

There's a business angle to it as well.  You can earn Linden dollars in SecondLife and convert them into real cash.  Its free to set up a user account, but you will need a basic level graphics card to run the program (browser like interface for this online medium).  It is free to join, actually they give you the equivalent of $3 US for joining, but you will probably spend that having fun and learning your way around.  After that you can always get a virtual job and earn money or start a business or bring in your real life business to an office in SL.

Here I am dancing and listening to MyChemical Romance at a Warner Brothers floating island in the sky.

I'm finding that this is an interesting way to connect with people and have better conversations in chat mode rather than the old fashion completely text based area.  Plus, I'm finding that its a very amusing place to find things to write about.  I'm specifically developing my ability to write dialogue in my creative writing adventures.

The interaction is great for coming up with some pretty funny ideas, which I'm going to develop a little more as I get the hang of the place some more